Oh thank the Hockey Gods! Per the Free Press's Helene St. James, Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom has decided to play for another season:

June 1, Detroit Free Press: Red Wings general manager Ken Holland confirmed this morning that
Nicklas Lidstrom will be back for a 19th season with the club.

Lidstrom, 40, has agreed
to a deal worth $6.2 million.

The Detroit News's Chris McCosky confirms...

June 1, Detroit News: "I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled," general manager Ken Holland
said. "I get to watch him every day and I don't care what anybody says, I
watched the best two-way defenseman in the world last season. What he
meant to our team, keeping us afloat during a 40-game stretch where we
were injured and had no offense, it was incredible. Then when we
got our guys back he was nearly producing a point-a-game. That, plus
all he does on specialty teams, even at age 40, he's the best two-way
defenseman in the world."

...

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"He
did take a pay decrease and with the salary cap going up a touch, we
should have a little bit more flexibility," Holland said. "But mostly,
it will enable us to re-sign our unrestricted and restricted free
agents."

...

Holland, having crunched the numbers, believes he will be able to
keep the roster mostly intact from a year ago. That would entail
re-signing unrestricted free agents Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi,
as well as restricted free agents Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Drew
Miller and Patrick Eaves.

"It's going to be tight," Holland said.
"(Commissioner) Gary Bettman said that he thinks the cap could go up $2
million. Well, we've signed Jiri Hudler for almost $3 million ($2.875
million)."

As does the Macomb Daily's Chuck Pleiness...

June 1, Macomb Daily:“After watching him the last half of the (regular) season and in the
playoffs, I believe we have the best two-way defenseman in the world,”
Holland said. “He’s excited to come back and we’re excited to have him
back.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed by Holland, but the Wings’ GM
said his salary is less than what he made last season. Lidstrom made
$7.45 million a year ago.

“He has given us extra salary cap space,” Holland said.

View full sizeAssociated PressRed Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom cleans out his locker after the Wings' ouster in May.

“I get to watch him every day,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland
said. “I still think that Nick is the premier two-way defenseman in the
world. There might be some player that maybe a little bit more
productive, offensively, but I think when you factor in how good Nick is
defensively, how he played the last half of the year, certainly the
last 30 games … I still think we have one – if not the – best defensemen
in the world. It’s a great day for Red Wings’ fans.”

...

“Obviously, the players on the ice know best,” Holland said. “They have
to play against him. When we go into a playoff series or big games, our
match-ups are always Nick Lidstrom against the opponent’s best offensive
player.

“I really think, with all of the key injuries that we had in the first
60 games last year, there were three or four key reasons we were able to
stay in the race. One was the structure that Mike Babcock put in place,
one was the job that Jimmy Howard
did, and I certainly think another was the job that Nick Lidstrom did
as a leader off the ice and as a player on the ice.”

And MLive.com's own Ansar Khan offers the following:June 1, MLive.com: "He's helped give us some extra (salary) cap space,'' Holland said.
"Hopefully the cap goes up a little and it gives us a little wiggle room
to improve the depth of our team.''

The futures
of UFAs Andreas Lilja and Kirk Maltby are uncertain. UFA's Jason
Williams and Brett Lebda won't be re-signed. The $56.8 million salary cap is expected to be in the $58 million range
next season.

The deal was worth $6.2 million, a source told ESPN.com's Pierre
LeBrun. Lidstrom earned $7.4 million this season and was due to become
an unrestricted free agent July 1.

"It's a huge benefit anytime
you have an upper-echelon player, who can still play at a high level,
decide to stay with your organization," coach Mike Babcock told The
Associated Press.

...

"As we've watched the playoffs, we believe we can still knock on the
door next year," Babcock said. "You can't do that if you're losing
players, and we're not. In fact, we've already added a little."

Forward Jiri
Hudler signed a two-year contract last month, coming back to Detroit
after spending a season in Russia, where Dynamo Moscow granted his
release. The 26-year-old Czech had 99 points his last two seasons
in the NHL, helping Detroit win the Stanley Cup in 2008 and reach Game 7
of the finals last year.

"It's huge to have Huds back," Babcock
said. "Instead of separating Z [Henrik
Zetterberg] and Pav [Pavel
Datsyuk] on the power play, we can put them on the same unit and
let Huds run the other one."

Lids wasn't superhuman in the playoffs, but there's
no question his presence makes Detroit a contender again next season.
Plus, he'll got a Norris nomination as a tribute, and he deserves a
victory lap so we can celebrate one of the best defensemen in NHL
history.

Assuming, you know, this is actually the end for the
ageless wonder, and that "Lidstrom" isn't actually Swedish for
"Chelios."

June 1, Sportsnet: Lidstrom posted 10 points (4-6-10) in Detroit's 12 playoff games
after a regular season that saw him record his lowest goal, assist,
point and power play point totals since the lockout ended. Still, if
9-40-49 (20 PPP) with a +22 rating during a season where his team
endured key losses in terms of injured players and summer movement is an
off-year, then sign me up for another one of those "disappointments"
next year.

Remember that he not only contributed 14 points in 21
GP during Detroit's strong post-Olympic push, but he also put up 36
points in the 46 games after the Christmas break ended.

With a
healthy Johan
Franzen and Niklas
Kronwall over a full season, coupled with the return of Jiri Hudler
and maybe, finally (this time for real) the next developmental step for
Valtteri
Filppula... it should be fairly safe to pencil him in for another
50-60 points the next time around. Throw in the fairly helpful
peripherals he generally contributes in terms of +/- and SOG in addition
to his career consistency of being a great offensive threat and he'll
surely still be one of the early rearguards off the board in fall
fantasy drafts yet again.

The Wings will no doubt try to shave
some minutes off his ice time totals, but that really shouldn't affect
his bottom line offensively because you know he'll make his TOI count
and he'll still be the top PP1 threat along with Rafalski. Lidstrom
averaged 25:26 per game this past season, which was actually up from the
24:49 he tallied in '08-9. The team likely ideally would have liked to
have seen his trend of a diminishing TOI continue this past year (28:07
in '05-6, 27:28 in '06-7, 26:43 in '07-8 and then 24:49 in '08-9), but
injury issues prevented that from happening.